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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194110">Can’t Take My Eyes off You</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stranger Things (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>California, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Idiots in Love, Kid Fic, M/M, Making A Home, No Angst, Reminiscing, Short &amp; Sweet, Soft Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington is a Sweetheart, even after 20 years, they’re both good dads</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:35:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,501</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194110</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Halloween of 2004 is already proving to be a good one. Steve is making sure their kid doesn’t topple over his tiny body as he shoves himself into the Ghostbusters costume that certainly looks used. </p>
<p>Billy is taking it all in and laughing at the sight of his son hopping around, trying to push his leg in. </p>
<p>He made it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>74</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Can’t Take My Eyes off You</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>“For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.” - Stephanie Perkins.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Frankie Valli is singing about how he can’t take his eyes off his lover. Steve had put the record on their player earlier today when Billy came home from work. He insisted on dancing, told Billy that he looked drained and needed something sweet to keep him up. Billy had rolled his eyes. Then, they shouted the lyrics at the top of their lungs as they danced in their living room, wide smiles on both of their faces. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s not what most people would do on Halloween, but they’ve never been most people, not by a long shot.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Billy’s sat on their leather couch in the living room, TV remote in hand, trying to find a channel that’s playing a decent thriller. Scream, he thinks. He’s always loved the box-office hits. He stops on one that’s showing something new, </span>
  <em>
    <span>The Grudge</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He’ll have a lot of fun scaring Steve later after they finish the movie and have the house to themselves. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He can hear Steve laughing as he fits their son, Danny, into his Ghostbusters costume. Dustin had visited the weekend before Halloween, had brought along pictures from Halloween of 1984, along with pictures of Hawkins and Steve and Billy, all the pictures captured by Max. Danny had gone wild, had pestered Steve and Billy into finding a costume for him so he could match with his Uncle Dustin. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His Uncle Dustin had also told him all about Hawkins, Indiana, how his parents hated each other at first until they got closer and closer after one night of battling some monsters together. The monster’s part was all a gag, they told Danny. Danny didn’t need to know that a sleepy town in Indiana had had some monsters running underground and that his parents had had to put aside their differences after a fight to help the kids who had found a nest of demodogs and decided not to tell Steve. Billy just so happened to have been following Steve when Steve ran off to help them, looking for a fight and finding one in the creatures from the Upside Down, not Steve. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After that night, Billy and Steve got closer, gradually. It wasn’t immediate, not by any standards. Steve would still glare at Billy. Billy would glare back. It wasn’t until Billy had saved Steve from a demodog with a swing of his crowbar that Steve started warming up to Billy. They didn’t glare at each other anymore. They started talking as they waited for the kids at the arcade. They shared cigarettes, beers, and eventually, kisses. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When they both graduated, they hightailed it to San Diego. Steve would work as a police officer after getting a degree in Law Enforcement from San Diego City College, and Billy would go to UCSD. Billy found his Aunt Wendy after searching for his mom, who told both of them that Billy’s mom had left a house here. One that Neil didn’t know about. They moved in and started making it theirs. All in all, their lives started shaping up and they finally felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>free</span>
  </em>
  <span> in San Diego. It wasn’t easy, not at all, but they worked hard for it. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After seeing all the pictures and hearing all the stories that Dustin had brought of Halloween in 1984, Danny wouldn’t stop asking them for a Ghostbusters costume. He would give Billy puppy dog eyes that made Billy certain that </span>
  <em>
    <span>Steve</span>
  </em>
  <span> had taught him to do them. Billy and Steve would always say they’d think about it until today. They had bought him a pirate costume as a gag gift before Steve ran to their bedroom to grab the Ghostbusters costume Dustin had shipped out to San Diego. It was a goddamn miracle that he had found it, that’s for sure. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The look in Danny’s big brown eyes as Steve had brought the costume out from behind his back reminded Billy of Steve’s eyes. Danny wasn’t their kid, not by blood. That didn’t stop Billy and Steve from believing that Danny was theirs, through and through. Their kid had beautiful black hair and beautiful brown eyes, beige skin, and moles and freckles, and they were completely in love with him from the first moment they saw him at the adoption center back in 1998, when Danny was a 2-year-old whose mother had dropped him off at the center in a basket.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He can hear his two favorite people walk over to the living room, trying to contain giggles. He’s certain that the giggles are coming from both Steve and Danny. That’s something he’s learned about Steve, something he’s come to love about him. He’s a father who plays. Really plays. He devotes so much time to horsing around with Danny, always saying yes to games of pretend and dress up and to play with the Power Rangers actions figures they bought Danny for Christmas of last year. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve loves throwing Danny over his shoulder, spinning the both of them in circles until they’re dizzy and laughing so brightly. He loves making home-cooked meals for the three of them, is always picking Danny up and setting him on the counter next to Steve so that Danny can see too. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Billy does all of this too, but Steve seems to love every minute. He never complains about it. Billy knows it’s because he wants Danny to have the happy childhood he lacked. He wants Danny to experience the warmth; he wants Danny to have fun in his house, to not think of it as a place that’s empty and devoid of life. Steve does a great job of making sure that their home </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> feels cozy and happy. Billy always reminds him. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It shows in the clutter that should make the house look messy and winds up making the house look lived in. Steve had always lived in a home where every single item was carefully chosen and placed where it looked best. The shoes were in a rack by the front door, there was a coat rack by the door too, and a shelf with nothing but plastic plants and some knick-knacks. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Their home has shoes tossed by the door, a basket with all of their jackets on the ground next to their shoes, and a shelf filled to the brim with jars of seashells, pictures, and plants that Danny waters every afternoon after school. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, what do we think?” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Billy looks over his shoulder to see Steve and Danny standing in the doorway to the living room, cracks a smile when he sees his son smiling too. “Amazing.” Danny giggles and spins around. The costume is too big for him, he’s only 7 years old and Dustin wore it when he was 13, but Billy thinks it makes Danny look adorable. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve kneels in front of their son, right on the carpet flooring despite knowing that he’ll get carpet burn from it. “Okay, honey, let’s fix this so it doesn’t slip.” Danny nods, the wide smile still on his face, and turns around. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve and Billy laugh when Danny fiddles with the metal box that Dustin also shipped out to them. Danny is thoroughly impressed with how it opens and closes, won’t stop messing with it. “Danny, can you please keep still?” Billy says. He makes sure that his voice is soft. He rarely raises his voice, mainly because he knows that yelling will only make it worse. He experienced it firsthand. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The few times he raises his voice are only when Danny is in danger, or when he’s done something wrong. Like last night, when Danny got too close to the stove as Steve was making spaghetti, or when Danny started climbing the tree in their backyard. His worst fear has changed from Steve being in danger to Steve </span>
  <em>
    <span>and </span>
  </em>
  <span>Danny being in danger. Can’t blame Billy for yelling at his kid to get down before he breaks a bone.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve, while securing the backpack to Danny’s back, turns around to look at Billy. He stops for a moment. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>For just half of a second, all they do is look at each other. Blue eyes meeting brown eyes. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve sends a wink. A sly smirk appears on his face. Billy chuckles and shakes his head, ignores the burning in his cheeks because he does </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> blush that easily, not anymore. It’s been 20 years since 1984. He doesn’t blush like he’s still 17. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Steve goes back to helping Danny. It’s a beautiful sight in front of Billy. His boyfriend, who </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span> be his husband if they had their way, and their son. The family Billy has always wanted. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He feels a warm feeling growing in his chest. He can’t tell if it’s love or bliss. It’s both, he decides. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He made it. They both made it. They’re here in San Diego, in a house that his mom left for him like she knew he would make it home and would need a place to call his. A place for a family of his own. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>halloween is so close and i cannot believe that. the year has gone by way too quick and i honestly feel like all this time was wasted :/ BUT i did get to write all of the things i’ve posted and i made a great friend so it wasn’t all that bad. </p>
<p>ANYWAY as always, please let me know if this was good!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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